USDA Confirms BSE Case

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today confirmed the nation’s fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a dairy cow from central California.

“The carcass of the animal is being held under State authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed. It was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health. Additionally, milk does not transmit BSE,” said USDA Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford. “Samples from the animal in question were tested at USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. Confirmatory results using immunohistochemistry and western blot tests confirmed the animal was positive for atypical BSE, a very rare form of the disease not generally associated with an animal consuming infected feed.”

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Cattle Health and Well-being Committee Chairman Tom Talbot noted that BSE is fast approaching eradication worldwide. “According to USDA, there were only 29 cases of BSE worldwide in 2011, which is a 99 percent reduction since the peak in 1992 of more than 37,300 cases,” he said. “We commend USDA and animal health experts for effectively identifying and eliminating the potential risks associated with BSE.”

“American beef and dairy products are safe,” stressed American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman. “The safeguards our government has in place to detect any incidence of this disease are clearly working. The report of a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, discovered during the pre-rendering process, is proof that our detection system works.”

USDA officials remain confident in the health of the national herd and the safety of beef and dairy products and will “continue to communicate findings in a timely and transparent manner.”

Animal Health, Beef, Dairy, USDA

The Passing of Judy Henderson

Chuck Zimmerman

Everyone involved in the agricultural marketing industry knows Lynn Henderson, Owner/Publisher, Agri Marketing Magazine. Many of you may not have known Lynn’s wife Judy who has been battling illness for some time. Judy passed early this morning. Here’s an excerpt from a note from Lynn:

Early this morning, my beloved wife Judy left this earth to be with our God. She passed away peacefully and had a smile on her face.

Thank you so much for all of your support during this journey our family has been on.

Best wishes,
Lynn

Judy met Lynn when she was a Art Director at Century Communications. They moved to St. Louis when Lynn became Pres/CEO of Doane Agricultural Services. She recently joined Henderson Communications on the editorial staff of its Agri Marketing magazine. A memorial service is being planned to celebrate her life. In lieu of flowers, contributions are suggested to the Windsor Crossing church and Mercy Medical Care Hospice.

Media

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Excerpts

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 347In this week’s program you’re going to hear why the Agri-Marketing Conference is such an important program to have on your schedule each year.

I’ve taken some excerpts from two of our keynote speakers, Peter Sheahan and Ross Shafer as well as an interview with one of our Conference Planning Committee members, Scott McClure, and put them into a program. Let’s get started in show order with Peter Sheahan. Peter talked about “Making it Happen: How To Turn Good Ideas Into Great Results.” Peter talks about how you take good ideas and then execute. It’s in the execution that you take those ideas and innovate!

Next we’ll move along to Ross Shafer who spoke on “Are You Still Relevant?” Of course we’d all like to think we’re relevant. One of the first things Ross says that sticks with me is the idea of “quit going to ag meetings.” He highly suggests going to meetings for other industries. He says that you’ll hear ideas in those meetings you’ll never hear in an ag meeting. That might be just what you need to stay relevant!

And finally we’ll visit with Scott McClure, Brighton Agency, who was our Vice Chair of this year’s NAMA Conference Planning Committee. Scott says the success of this year’s Conference is a combination of the enthusiasm in our industry and the coming together of one of the largest gatherings of people we’ve had in a decade. Scott also says he worked on a great planning committee this year and gives them the credit for coming up with a really good program that included speakers like Peter and Ross.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Program

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, NAMA, ZimmCast

BASF Survey Confirms Glyphosate Resistance

Cindy Zimmerman

Farmers are responding to the threat of glyphosate resistance, according to results from a recent national BASF survey.

BASFThe survey found that about four out of five farmers plan to alter their weed control programs in 2012 due to resistance issues.

More than 50 percent of farmers surveyed acknowledged the existence of glyphosate-resistant weeds in their fields, and many of them blamed resistance for hurting their yields. In addition, even farmers who have not seen glyphosate resistance in their fields said they would make changes to their weed control programs.

BASF Technical Market Manager Dr. Dan Westberg found the results encouraging. “It indicates that farmers understand that today’s weed control challenges demand the use of a more comprehensive management approach,” he said. “For a long time, farmers relied almost solely on glyphosate to control their weed problems, but those days are over. The repeated use of a single chemistry is the number one reason many have developed resistant weed populations.”

A majority of survey respondents acknowledged the need to do more, with more than 80 percent saying they would be willing to invest additional dollars to control resistant weeds.

Read more from BASF here.

Tell us if you are excited about the 2012 growing season by clicking here.

BASF, Crop Protection, weed management

MGEX Debuts Canadian Conference Call

Cindy Zimmerman

MGEXThe Minneapolis Grain Exchange has been doing a monthly conference calls with commentary on USDA crop and supply/demand reports for many years. Now they are doing the same for their friends north of the border.

Today was the inaugural MGEX conference call in conjunction with the Stats Canada agricultural data releases, following the release of March Intentions of Principal Field Crop Areas, 2012 report. The call included commentary on the data from Dennis Cajigas from Zaner Group. The first call had several Canadian journalists tuned in, as well as farm broadcaster Al Gustin of KFYR in Bismark, ND who asked about the impact recent developments regarding the Canadian Wheat Board may have had on this year’s planting intentions in Canada.

All of the MGEX conference calls are posted on the exchange website – links right on the front page. Contact Rita Maloney or Joe Victor at MGEX if you would like to receive notices about upcoming calls.

Listen to today’s MGEX Canadian crop conference call here: MGEX Canadian Conference Call

Audio, Wheat

Iowa State Student NAMA Wins Marketing Competition

Chuck Zimmerman

The announcement of the student NAMA team that wins the annual marketing competition at the annual Agri-Marketing Conference is always so emotional. There are smiles, cheers and tears. And you even find them on the students too!

This year the winning team is the Iowa State University Student NAMA team. I did not get to be involved in the team competition much this year so somebody needs to help me out and add a comment about what their product was. Sorry, I just did not get notes of that. However, I did capture the winners on video. Think they’re excited?

The other winners included:

2nd place – University of Minnesota,

3rd place – Kansas State University,

4th place – University of Wisconsin-Madison,

5th place – Arizona State University,

6th place – University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Education, NAMA, University

Flapcakes with Chef Ray

Chuck Zimmerman

Chef Ray made both kinds, pancakes and flapjacks. We call them flapcakes. So did you AgWired fans at the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference survive the Brownfield Party for a little After Party Pancakes with Rhea + Kaiser? These folks did and I did too. There’s just something about having an early morning breakfast and then a later in the morning breakfast that gets your day off to a great start. Know what I mean?

In case you didn’t make it to Chef Ray’s breakfast you can still learn a little etiquette from him.

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Agencies, NAMA, Video

NAMA Membership and Conference Attendance Growth

Chuck Zimmerman

The 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference was a good one with an attendance near the record set in 2000 according to National Agri-Marketing Association President Beth Burgy, Broadhead. I spoke with Beth during the conference and agreed with her statement at our board meeting that it is really nice not to have major “issues” to be dealing with. However, the NAMA Executive Committee and Board are still working on the NAMA Strategic Plan and are continuing to explore ways to fully and successfully implement it. Beth says we have a “youth movement” going on in NAMA and lots of opportunities exist within the industry. Beth says she’s having a wonderful time as President and looks forward to the rest of the year.

You can listen to my interview with Beth here: Beth Burgy Interview

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, NAMA

Some #NAMA12 Social MentionAtivity

Chuck Zimmerman

We always want to know about how to measure social media. Do you with there was some simple mechanism that just takes one click? Yeah. Me too.

Here’s a graphic looking at the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference hashtag – #NAMA12. This is using Social Mention and looking at the “all” category. I like seeing 102 unique authors and zero negativity!

It’s also interesting to search the hashtag to see what you can find there.

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, NAMA

Farm Bill Work This Week

Cindy Zimmerman

While farmers are busy getting crops in the ground this week, members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees will be busy trying to get a 2012 Farm Bill off the ground.

As the Senate Ag Committee released a draft proposal on Friday, several agricultural organizations sent a letter to the leadership thanking them, while at the same time expressing a few concerns.

Co-signed by eight organizations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Corn Growers Association, the letter commended the committee for adhering to its original proposal of $23 billion in deficit reduction, and for not proposing to restructure the federal crop insurance program or to reduce its funding for deficit reduction purposes.

“Even with the clear and real need to reduce our federal deficit, it remains in the best interest of our nation to help ensure a basic level of risk management for farmers and our food supply,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. “Farming is a risky business. There is no doubt about that, and crop insurance is a key principle in the goal to provide farmers a dependable safety net.”

In response to concerns from other commodity groups about a revenue-based approach, the groups advocate making changes in the crop insurance program to enhance its viability as a risk management tool, while maintaining the effectiveness of the existing program for other commodities. The groups do not, however, support program alternatives that tie current-year production to fixed price supports, which can distort planting decisions and production between commodities when market prices decline.

“NCGA strongly believes a farmer should be able to absorb a price or yield loss in any given year,” said NCGA President Garry Niemeyer, a corn grower from Auburn, Ill. “However, we are trying to protect farmers, especially young farmers, when they are facing these types of losses multiple years in a row.”

In addition to crop insurance, the groups are calling for planting flexibility for farmers as well as a new program to complement the risk protection provided under crop insurance and the continuation of the marketing loan program, urging the Committee to oppose any changes in current law regarding payment limitations or eligibility for farm programs based on Adjusted Gross Income. “Currently, 98 percent of U.S. producers participate in the farm program and comply with their conservation requirements,” stated the groups in the letter. “It is important that farmers remain in the program so that our country can maintain conservation compliance on agricultural lands.”

Read the letter here.

AFBF, Corn, Farm Bill, NCGA